County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Langston County Council to order. I ask that the clerk note for the record that a quorum of counsel is present, that public notice of the meeting, including the meeting agenda, has been posted the required length of time in the lobby of the county administration building and on the county website, and that the news media was notified of the meeting time and place. I welcome you to your county council meeting. I would ask that you take a moment to turn off or place on vibrate any cell phones. Thank you for not wearing any hats or caps in the council chambers. And please be considerate of others in the room by refraining from conversations during the meeting. I ask that you please stand and join council for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the invocation given this evening by Councilmember Bryant Neal.

Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father God, just thank you for this day, God. Thank you for the many blessings you've given us. Thank you for the rain that you've given us. Thank you for each one that's here tonight, God. And just be with us as we do the business of the county and just lead God and direct us that we'll make the best decisions for the people of Lancaster County. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I would like to recognize that former council member Larry Hunnicutt is joining us tonight along with his beautiful wife. It's always good to see y'all and have you in the audience with us. We have a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Have a motion from Mr. McGriff. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Mr. Luis. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it is unanimous. Okay, we're going to go on to item five, citizens' comments. We are now at citizens comments. Please bear in mind that this is not a period of dialogue with council or a question and answer period. This is your opportunity to address council with your concerns. I ask that you address your remarks to council as a body and not to any individual council member. Please speak into the microphone, state your name and address for the record, and you will have up to three minutes to address the council. Your time will not start until you have provided your name and address. We have one person that signed up for public comment, Mr. Gordon Johnston.

which then triggers the commencement of a five-year vesting period last fall i requested a similar extension to june 30th believing that would provide sufficient time to finalize all approvals and proceed forward with closing and the commencement of development for the project Since then, we've continued to work diligently and advance the project forward, and we have made substantial progress. I'll repeat that, we have made substantial progress. However, we have encountered several unforeseen delays along the way. Most notably, or most recently, we've experienced an extended review and coordination back and forth with SCDOT regarding certain roadway improvement requirements that have continued to evolve over the past several months. And we've also continued to work through what has become a very complex water and sewer layout with Lancaster County Water and Sewer District, most recently just in the past couple of months with a change to the alignment of the sewer. And while seemingly small, each of these changes sets off a cascade of additional consultants and engineering time and Redesign of the plans resubmittal of the plans and ultimately review by the municipal agency all of which simply means more time Our goal here remains the same to move this project forward and to bring high quality new housing to the county That is our goal We are very close from an approval standpoint But it has become clear in the past 30 days that we will not finalize everything prior to the June 30th deadline in the development agreement And accordingly, we're respectfully requesting an additional 90 day extension to that date. I know that repeated requests for these extensions is not something council wants to hear. And it's certainly not something that we expected either. We've invested a tremendous amount of time and effort into moving this project forward. Despite the challenges, we do remain fully committed to bringing this development to the county. We're simply asking for a little additional time to finish the process properly. I'll remain in the audience available this evening to answer any questions or provide additional context. And as always, thank you for your time and for your consideration.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

I was going to mention this. We had one electronic comment come in, but it's related to a matter on a state road inside the city of Lancaster. So I'll take care of it just so you all be aware of it. Requesting a caution light and or crosswalk intersection. of Chesterfield Rock and Hampton Road. I'll pass that on to the South Carolina DOT.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Willis. Also missed Senator Gregory. Former Senator Gregory is joining us tonight. I'd like to welcome him into the council chambers as well. We're going to move on now to item 6A, special presentations. An update from the Indian Land High School's Palmetto Pride Club provided by Isabella Cordier, president in recognition of the club presented by Mandy Cato of Keep Lancaster Beautiful Board.

Hi, it's such an honor to be able to present with you guys again what our club has done since last summer speaking with you. And now I have all my board of officers here. So we have the presenters. First, we have Grace Bruski. She is a Palmetto Pride Youth Ambassador with myself, Isabella Cotterhead. And I'm also ILHS Palmetto Pride President. And then we have Tiniel Razor. She's the Vice President of ILHS Palmetto Pride. We have Natalie Turner. She is the Secretary of Palmetto Pride. And we have Elena Valentine, who is the Social Media Manager of Palmetto Pride. And lastly, we have Melanie Colon, who is the Events Coordinator of Palmetto Pride.

All right, during our junior year of high school, Isabella and I wanted to take initiative to start a club in our high school, and we were both very interested in the environment when we were younger, so we felt that Palmetto Pride was the best fit. I still remember the early days of our club, like making the flyers and the logos, and being able to have the opportunity to share our passion for the environment was a very big deal to us. Going in, our mission was clear, to help people understand why the environment is so important and how to preserve it. We went about this in many ways through tiny lessons during our school clubs or hands-on activities such as our cleanups with Keep Lancaster Clean. Having environmental awareness is something that isn't seen for how important it actually is. With the world constantly evolving, people tend to see things as littering as a little thing when it's really detrimental to our earth, which is why we thought making our club was such a priority. Over the two years of our participation in this club, we've made many positive impacts that we are proud to show you today.

To start off, in three days, Palmetto Pride exceeded their fundraising goal by selling donuts in recyclable boxes with included tips on how to care for the environment so that we can promote sustainability within our school and also sell tasty treats which totaled in over $1,000. On April 26, Palmetto Pride and the Red Cross Club teamed up to host our first cleanup with KLCB, otherwise known as Keep Lancaster County Beautiful, for the SC Suite. With 15 amazing volunteers signed up, we hit Highway 521 with supplies from KLCB and picked up trash to keep our community beautiful. At the end, we had picked up 27 bags of litter, 18 plastic signs, car parts, and a couple tires. We hope for this to be the first of many more to come. Then, using our funds from the Eco Eats fundraiser, we spent Saturday morning with the landscaping department and Principal Parker from Indian Land High School refreshing the front circle, laying mulch, painting favors, and prepping for spring blooms. Later that week, the agriculture class added the perfect finishing touch by planting flowers. It was an amazing start to our mission of bringing pride and a positive change to campus. To wrap up my first term as a 2025 Youth Ambassador in the club's first full year, I presented on July 21st here at the Lancaster County Council about litter preventions made at Indian Land High School through our club. It was an honor to be able to speak on behalf of my peers about the steps we took to tackle litter. This year, our movement has grown. I am incredibly excited to have a dedicated team of fellow youth leaders presenting right beside me. Moving into the new year, we began to start a tradition within our 521 highway cleanups and aim to host them once a month as we work with students from beta slash NHS to sponsor these for two volunteer hours. As of this year, we had a total headcount of 53 plus volunteers held across our two cleanups total. In the end, they had amassed a total collection of 98 bags, three tires, three big sheets of metal. Soon, we saw not only the importance in collaborating within the club, but working with others in the school to reach similar goals. During the holidays, we teamed up with Paws for a Claws for a pet supply drive, helping animals find love through donations collected in our community. From Palmetto Pride's SE suite, we teamed up with local youth ambassadors, Grace Brewski, who's right beside me, and Hannah Dean to organize an activity at Del Webb Library to educate about environmentalism, where change truly starts within youth. Through the activities planned, kids attended to watch soil erode in real time, held worms for the first time, participated in nature-themed crafting games, and simulated the procedure of a cleanup. They were also given away Palmetto Pride swag and redbud trees. In the end, we hosted a small mini cleanup to keep the surrounding area around Del Webb Library clean. We ended up with 50 trees planted and two bags collected. This was a collaborative effort between many inspiring figures in our community, one who we are proud to have presenting with us here today, Grace Bruschi.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Grace Bruschi, and I'm a Palmetto Pride Youth Ambassador, and I'm from Lancaster County. I'm a rising senior at Cyber Academy of South Carolina, and I'm especially grateful for the opportunities like this that allow young people to make a real impact in the place we call home. Through Palmetto Pride, I've had the opportunity to participate in projects and events focused on community pride, environmental sustainability, and encouraging youth leadership statewide. One of the biggest honors I've had through Palmetto Pride was speaking at the annual Governor's Art Contest at the State House alongside Lieutenant Governor Pamela Yvette.

where I also had the privilege of presenting awards to the students selected.

I've also hosted and participated in multiple cleanups across our county, but what I've learned through this work the most is that it's so much more than picking up litter. It's about bringing people together and showing young people that there's... that their actions matter. Even something small like showing up to a cleanup or planting a tree could create a lasting impact. One of the experiences that meant most to me was working alongside Isabella in the Indian Land High School Pometo Pride Club. Through the event, students, families, and community members across our county came together, not only to help clean our environment, but to also teach the younger students about sustainability and the importance of taking pride in where they live. Through our event, we were able to give away over 50 trees to members of our community. So the impact of that day could grow for years to come. If we choose not to care, we will be the generation that watched our communities change. But if we step up and take action, we will be the generation that protected it. And to me, that's what Palmetto Pride is really about. And I'm extremely thankful for the opportunities Palmetto Pride has given me. And I truly believe that when young people are given the chance to lead, we make a difference. Thank you.

Hi, my name's Elena. So we use Instagram and TikTok for one main reason, to make environmentalism actually feel attainable and personal. Instead of just lecturing people about the importance of our cause, we post quick eco tips, accomplishments made from our events, and we love showing off our volunteers who made these results possible. It makes people see the fun and community behind the cause. At the end of the day, our big goal isn't just getting likes and views, but we have been very successful in that regard as shown here. We want to take people who are scrolling on their phones and convince them to put on some sneakers, show up, and actually volunteer with us in the real world. We've been incredibly grateful for the media recognition we've received throughout our journey within this club, as you can see up here on the screen. What we love the most about this coverage is that the media isn't just writing about us as a concept. They are highlighting our actual community impact. This kind of press has been huge for us. It proves our approach is working. It gets our name out there, and it shows that the conversation around environmentalism is shifting in our direction.

Hi, my name is Melanie. Behind every successful project, there's always a team of incredible people keeping us moving, and that's exactly what you see here. First, we have our amazing club advisor, Ms. Hargett, who guides us through everything and keeps us on track. She has been with us since before day one when she agreed to support us in the creation of this club, even though she was not too familiar with the cause herself at the time. Nonetheless, she has supported us through every goal we wanted to complete and inspired us even when they felt unachievable. She was the heart of the ILHS Palmetto Pride. Next to them is the Palmetto Pride Youth Ambassador Coordinator, Megan Hamilton, who was overseeing everything done by the youth ambassadors chosen this year in South Carolina, molding us into leaders that we did want to be part of change and showed us how to make it happen. not only did through her advice, but resources provided on behalf of Prometer Pride. And last but not least, our KLCB affiliate Mandy Cattell from Keep Lancaster Beautiful. She has been an absolute lifesaver by providing for us with all of the physical resources like bags, grabbers to actually run our cleanup safely. Plus a huge shout out to her for writing about our efforts in the Lancaster news. We are incredibly grateful for the mentorship, the resources, and for helping us share our story with our wider community.

To wrap things up, I want to share the actual progress. the actual progress we've made so far. These three numbers really show what happens when online awareness turns into action. First, for volunteers, we successfully mobilized 77 plus people who showed up, rolled up their sleeves, and did the work. Next, through our fundraising, raised $1,000, which went into securing resources for our future projects. And finally, the number that we are proudest of together, we have collected 125 plus pounds of trash, keeping it out of our local environments and parks. None of this would be possible without our amazing community, our partners, and people like you, including the council for allowing us to share our impact made publicly and inspire others. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hosting ILHS Palmetto Pride Club has taught me and my team many things. It has taught us leadership, initiative, and most importantly, teamwork. Collaborating together has allowed us to accomplish everything we shared here with you today. And interacting with our members in our club meetings and seeing their sparked interest in our activities gave us all a sense of pride, as inspiring others to see and care about our environment was our number one goal. This club has also led to a bond as I was able to get closer to all the girls up here, making friendships I hope to keep for a long time. I cannot express enough how being a part of this club has changed me for the better and changed the rest of my team and how grateful we are to share this opportunity with you all in our proudest moments. As most of us up here graduate from ILHS, we hope that the new generations of leaders keep up the legacy of Palmetto Pride and continue to spread our mission of environmental awareness. Thank you so much for your time as we sign off this era of Palmetto Pride.

to present a special award. We had Mr. Honeycutt to come back, because as you all know, Mr. Honeycutt had a lot to do with us having Mr. Kemp here. So he's gonna present the Group Volunteer of the Year Award.

Thank you very much. Before I give out this award, I want to tell a story about when I first came on council, I'd been on council two years when we went to Columbia for a economic development seminar. All counties throughout the state were there, good representatives. Our first speaker got up and he told this story about a large company. that was looking to put a plant in any particular area that had these specific things like water, sewage, and so forth. They formed a committee to go out in several states and find this property that would be ideal. When they found the property that they thought that the board would accept, the chairman and some of the board members flew into the airport, They were picked up by these people and were on the way to the site that they had chosen and hopefully build a plant there. Five miles from the airport, the chairman of the board said, turn the van around and take me back to the airport. They couldn't understand why. And he asked him why. He said, am I the only one that has looked on the side of the roads, in the ditches, all the litter, the beer bottles, the beer cans, drink cups, scattered for the first five miles of our trip? These are the people that would expect us to hire them into our plant. And I don't want employees like that. They got on the airplane and left. Whether or not they got a sight, I don't know. They were pleasing, but I hope he stuck to his guns about the litter. But that is a deal breaker if I have ever seen one, and it should be. Tonight, I have the honor of presenting this award of excellence to the Volunteer Group of the Year Palmetto Pride Club. For the work they do, they have done outstanding work. All you got to do is go up 521 and you'll see what these young people have done. I'm proud of you. Lancaster County is proud of you. And it's an honor for me to put my name on this to give to you guys today.

Thank you.

Mandy, could you speak in the microphones?

What you see here has been Isabella's work, and of course, we're going to surprise her. She doesn't know about this, but if Leslie will come up, and Leslie is the daughter of Mr. Frank Ferguson, who was also a founder of Keep Lancaster County Beautiful, so we have a little surprise for you, Isabella. And if I could, could my board members just stand, all the board members that are here tonight? And they are what makes this all happen. And, of course, I'd like to thank Mr. Neal. We had him out there in the ditches about a week ago and seen some of the others of you there from time to time, Mr. Mosteller as well. So thank you all, and thank you. Yes, that's right, and Mr. Carnes. I have seen him in action too. So anyway, thank you so much.

Thank you all for reminding us that age does not matter when you're making a difference. So everybody take that to heart. We're gonna move on now to item seven, our consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve?

Mr. Chair, I move to approve consent agenda item 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, 7E, 7F, 7G, 7H, and 7I.

We have a motion from Mr. Mosteller and a second from Mr. McGriff. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it is unanimous. Okay, we're going to move on to item 8A on our... Our non-consent agenda. Public hearing and third reading of ordinance number 2026-2026. An ordinance to approve a temporary construction and permanent easement grant to Lancaster County Natural Gas Authority upon real property owned by Lancaster County and located off Harrisburg Road bearing tax parcel number 0003-00-041.00 and to authorize county officials to take such actions as are necessary to effectuate the grant of the easements and to effectuate the purposes of this ordinance. This passed 7-0 at the March 23, 2026 County Council meeting. passed 7-0 at the April 13, 2026 County Council meeting. At the April 27, 2026 County Council meeting, the public hearing and third reading were postponed until May 26, 2026 County Council meeting. We do not have anyone that signed up for public hearing, so we'll move past that. Do we have a motion to approve? We have a motion from Mr. McGriff. Do we have a second? Second. second from mr neal mr willis mr chairman members of council no change on third reading any discussion hearing none i'll call for the vote all those in favor please raise your right hand all opposed it is unanimous we'll move on to item 8 b third reading of ordinance 2026-2021 an ordinance to adopt amended policies related to poll workers and their classification as temporary employees as included in Lancaster County personnel policies and procedures in accordance with the Lancaster County Code, Chapter 2, Article 4, relating to the Lancaster County personnel policy. This passed six to one at the May 6, 2026 County Council meeting. County Council special meeting. Mr. Louise opposed. Pass six to one at the May the 11th, 2026 County Council regular meeting. Mr. Louise opposed. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Have a motion from Ms. McGriff, a second from Mr. Harper. Mr. Willis.

Mr. Chairman, members of the council, no change, but if you would allow me, I'd like to give a shout out to all our poll workers. Set a new record today, 921 early voters.

Wow. Great. Awesome. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed? The vote is 6-4, one against. It passes.

Mr. Chairman.

Yes, sir.

I may accuse myself of this next matter as I have a vested interest in this.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Harper. Mr. Harper. Okay, we're gonna move on to item eight C. First reading of ordinance number 2026-2035 an ordinance titled to amend a development agreement with Century Community Southeast LLC in accordance with the Unified Development Ordinance section 9.2.18.C.16.C and section 5.0 of ordinance number 2025-1987 to extend the effective date of the agreement to September 3rd, 2026. Ms. Cato, is there a motion?

I'll make a motion to bring it to the floor.

Second.

Mr. Chair, Member of Council, we have an application that's in front of you from Century Community. Century Communities has submitted their wanting to extend the Shiloh Woods Development Agreement. The current deadline is June 30th, 2026. They want to extend it to September 30th, 2026. In section 5.19 of the development agreement, it says if the county administrator has not received a clocked in copies of the deed conveying the property from the developer, It has not been received by 5 o'clock on June 30th, 2026. Then this agreement is automatically terminated without further action for either the council, for the county or the developer. I can speak on the TRC and the plan review. They submitted plans in March 30th, 2026. They have a round of comments. They're still outstanding with Lancaster County Water and Sewer. And those not approved reports went back to the developer on April the 15th, 2026. I believe the applicant is here. If you have any questions, they can speak more of why the request is being made.

All right. Are there any questions of Ms. Cato? Go ahead, Ms. McGriff.

If this is granted, it'll be four. And the UDO, they can ask for five, the five extensions. And so if this is approved, this will be the fourth one. Based on, they've already been moving... doing plan reviews. So they're actually, by the time they get all the approvals for the infrastructure and then when it comes in for the TRC to review it, then it will start then at the five years. So typically on the development agreements that we have, once they were approved, they start submitting in their plans and the clock starts ticking then versus getting all the approvals and then it gets approved.

Any additional comments?

Yeah, and this is not a surprise to Mr. Johnson, I'm sure, but I have consistently said this project has been dragging for a very long time. I think one of the last times that I asked, I said, give us a date that's further out than what you had originally asked for just so that we don't come back. Came back last time. Now we're back again. I'm a no. Like, let's just move on.

Any other comments?

Then if they have not, if they don't come in with the property being put in their name with the deeds and get it clocked in by June 30th, 2026, then development agreement is... What would they have to do?

Reapply?

They would probably have to start the process back over.

All over again?

Yeah.

You can tell they've made some headway. I would be willing to do the 90 days, but that would be it.

I would support that.

She had an event with her son, so she asked last week if she could be excused tonight.

If we grant the 90-day, this will be number what?

Four.

Can we put into motion, if it's approved tonight, this is it. No more, don't come back for an extension. Because then it will not be granted. I guess I need a legal...

I don't know why you're looking at me.

I think the UDO gives them five extensions, so I'm not sure that, yes, that is more of a legal question. And I will say that we have been in talks with Lancaster County Water and Sewer since we wrote the letter, since the request of the infrastructure and the constraints that they're working on to get those in place.

I'll put it like this. If I vote to approve, I'm not voting again for another extension. Uh, and I want that noted in the minutes that, uh, if I vote to approve, this is it for me because I know they've done a lot and they're waiting on, uh, South Carolina DOT and South Carolina Ward and SOAR. And, you know, I don't know what problems they're having, but, um, I hope they can get it done within the next 90 days. Otherwise, that's it for me.

And the applicant is here. He can speak more on the water and sewer in the force main that's being installed. Probably has more detail on that and where they're at with that and with the DOT. And he is here if you want to speak with him.

Mr. Chair, you want him to come up?

You may come forward.

Yeah, I'd say that what this really boils down to of all the different reviewing agencies is the two you mentioned, SEDOT and Lancaster Water and Sewer. As far as plan review and comments go with the county, with the state, as well as with the Army Corps of Engineers, which is also part of this process for impact permits. Those are all in good shape. It's really DOT and Lancaster Water and Sewer, and what's really driving the delay more than anything else has just been, from SEDOT's standpoint, changes in what they are wanting to see. So we had prescribed improvements in the traffic study that we had been designing towards, had submitted for their review and approval, had gotten comments. We were walking through that process. Sometime late last year, they decided that they no longer wanted to see those improvements. that instead they wanted to, rather than lane widening at the intersection of Shiloh Unity and 521, they would rather see signal improvements, cameras at the intersections, things that would allow them to better improve flow through the intersection rather than widening out for a turn lane on West Shiloh Unity Road. We approached county staff to request a decision on what we would need to do if that were the case. From our standpoint, it was a case of SEDOT's roads, this is what they want. What do we need to do to make that a reality? After internal conversations that we weren't a part of, it was decided or it came back to us that we would need to submit for an amendment to this same development agreement in order to make those changes. They would also request that we obtain a letter from SEDOT that spells out what SCD02 was requesting and why they were requesting it. So from there, we requested that same letter, and it was one of those cases of it's always next week, and it just continued to drag on. The holidays came around. They were saying it's gonna be first of the year, and lo and behold, time passed, and they came back to us and said, actually, we want to go back to making improvements to the lane to make turn lanes, but we don't want it to be the same kind of improvements as last time. We want to do it a little differently, which set us down a different path, which created some additional right-of-way or easement requirements, and all this is still kind of unfolding in recent months. With regards to Lancaster Water Sewer, it has just been a very complex process with them, with the different, three different plan sets that we're having reviewed and approved by Lancaster Water and Sewer, one for each phase of the project, that's two, plus the plans for the force main and pump station. With respect to changes, every time they make a change with respect to, say, the force main, and that's been kind of the driver of a lot of these changes. So the force main that leaves our site goes off-site and ties into existing lines out there. And most recently, at the end of March, they requested one additional change, and what that sets off is a domino effect of needing to get surveyors out there to evaluate where it needs to go or where they're requesting it to go, wetlands consultants to look at that to make sure we're not making any impacts. Engineers obviously have to get involved to reevaluate it, so it's just a sequence of steps, obviously redesigning the plans, resubmitting the plans, and it all just creates time. These are also off-site areas, so it creates another set of easement exhibits and discussions with that property owner, and it just has created a situation where we are closer. We've made a great deal of progress, but we're in a situation where about 30 days ago it became clear that June 30th was gonna be difficult to meet. I think we can meet that September 30th. I fully respect your opinion and understand the reason for wanting to be a one and done at this point. So I understand any questions or additional.

Any additional questions?

Mr. Chair, have a comment. Go ahead.

I know y'all got a lot of time and money invested in this, what y'all have done and all. And it ain't all your fault. I understand utilities and DOT can cause issues. And as I would like Ms. McGriff, I'll support 90 days, but that would be it. Mr. Louise.

So I'm just gonna read from Ms. Cato's letter, which she had said in the last closing paragraph. Based on the overall timeline of the project, the multiple extensions previously granted and the remaining review and coordination items still identified by the applicant, staff cannot support an additional extension request at this time. Mr. Johnson, I understand you have identified what a lot of those issues are. The likelihood being in development of those things happening within the time period that you have requested, I believe, is going to be very difficult to achieve. Having done developments before, I understand how one can get attached to something you think, we just need to get to this next thing. My concern, and if council approves this, is are you moving forward and just spending unnecessarily when something's really not gonna happen and we're not gonna hit that timeframe? And I just want you to think about that from the time and resources that may be spent if you think that you're going to come back here within a three-month period after that June 30th or September 30th time frame. So I still stand by my initial statement because I think in some ways it would provide a relief to you is the way that I see it. Just take this project out of its misery and move forward.

Understood. I respectfully... I still believe in this project.

Any other comments? I think we do need to have a little clarification to the motion. The motion was to bring this to the floor and it was not a motion to either approve or deny, so we need to know if the motion was to bring it to the floor for approval.

I'll make a motion to bring it to the floor for approval. Second.

Any additional comments? We'll take that as a secondary motion. We'll go ahead and vote on that. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed? The vote is six, four, two against. We'll move to the main motion. All those to approve the main motion.

Say that count again. What? Say the count again.

The count was four, four, two against. Did I say six? Sorry. That's why Lauren was looking a little funny. Four to two, Lauren. Okay, now we'll move back to the main motion as amended. Do we have all those in favor? Billy made an original motion. He did not say that it was to approve or not to approve. He said he made a motion to bring it to a floor.

He wanted to amend that motion.

We need to vote on, we've already voted on the amendment. Now we need to vote on the main motion. So all those in favor of the motion, the main motion is amended. Please raise your right hand. All those opposed? The vote is four to two. Motion passes. Okay, we're going to go on now to item 8D, first reading of ordinance number 2026-2036, an ordinance to appropriate funds and approve a detailed budget for Lancaster County for the fiscal year beginning July the 1st, 2026, and ending June the 30th, 2027, our fiscal year 2026, 2027, to set millage rates for the levy of ad valorem taxes to approve a schedule of taxes, fees, and charges for services for fiscal year 2026, 2027, and to provide for matters related thereto. Do we have a motion?

So moved.

I have a motion from Mr. McGriff to have a second.

I don't want to bring it to the floor.

Second. Second from Mr. Graham. Mr. Perusnak.

Mr. Chairman.

Yes, sir, Mr. Williams.

Before Jamie takes over, just a couple of quick comments. Some of this you've already heard. You have before you a budget that's stuck with items that have been identified to pass as priority. This budget is very public safety oriented, which was your number one priority in the strategic plan. For example, of the 48.5 new positions, because we do have one part-timer in there, 36 are public safety positions, including one at the coroner's office, 15 at EMS, four at the fire department, which you have 10 Indian land firefighters, but of course they're paid out of the Indian land fire fee, and 16 at the sheriff's office. Beyond this, the only department we propose to receive more than a single new employee to meet specific needs is the Auditor's Clerk for Homestead, Kennel Tech and Animal Shelter, Receptionist at the Veterans Affairs Office, is Parks and Recreation. There we propose to move two part-time employees to full-time and add a facility manager at Buford and Kershaw, positions that Indian Land and Lancaster already have. Total cost for the general fund positions is $4,975,217. a little less than half of the 81 positions originally requested. You'll hear from staff about needed non-personnel items ranging from flock software at the sheriff's office to additional space at the animal shelter, to cloud migration for public safety dispatch and records, to partnering with the capital project sales tax to install artificial turf at the Walnut Creek soccer fields. The two largest tasks are split between funding sources, the artificial turf and sheriff's patrol vehicles. Finance Department has done a great job trying to minimize the impact on our citizens, but we do have to face facts. Population increase we have to serve is not slowing down as we remain in the top 50 fastest growing counties in the United States. Also, the impact of inflation has been in the news and we're not immune. Examples include at Public Works, $190,000 increase in stone and the $351,600 increase for road paving just to do the same work we did this past year. We're also looking at an increase, which is still under discussion, just to dispose of our solid waste. Though admittedly, with new residents, the tonnage has gone up. You'll hear about potential salary adjustments for the lowest paid employees, which was a council priority. We also have the Christmas bonus that is a council priority. You'll hear from Jamie what reductions are needed for various revenue scenarios. At this point, we're asking for guidance on what council desires. If we need to cut requested items, we ask for council's direction on what specifically you desire to be eliminated. I would note that what appears to be a huge increase in the general fund budget is actually compliance with council's desire to spend fund balance to address some pressing capital needs. Obviously, 18.7 million fire trucks being the largest of those. Once you back out the fund balance items that result in a tax increase, The 43.86% increase in the general fund is down to 8.65. This in a year where, as you've heard, we propose to address significant public safety needs. I've heard council talk about kicking the can down the road. Not addressing the growth in population and inflation as allowed by state law is doing that. But I want to stress to you, we will certainly do whatever council directs. And whatever specific items you may desire to see removed from the proposed budget, we will certainly comply with that. Thank you, sir.

DAVID BURRAGE. Thank you, Mr. Willis.

I don't hear any changes from the last meeting.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Willis. That was a wonderful introduction there. Many of these slides you have seen, so we're gonna try and move through them only so that we can get to the heart of the matter of discussion. So what is being passed around to you at this moment are the proposed reductions. So last Thursday when we talked, these were items that you raised as possible reductions. So that's what you're receiving at this moment. Tonight's agenda. Budget goals, these are our guardrails, these are our guiding principles for developing a budget here in Lancaster County for our staff. The millage rates, this would be using Mr. Willis's recommended millage rate. And so you see the 83.5, the decrease in the county debt, to 2.5 from 7.2. And the capital replacement bond and the mandated courthouse security funds, those two millage rates stay the same. And so that total there, the 94.9 would be the total for just what the county is responsible for. The schools are in their own lane. And then of course, the delta between the 94.9 and the 92.6 is like 2.3. If you decide to go this route. And then that would be your long-range trend. And these are the certified mill values, which are provided to you from the county auditor and the trend line for that. And then you see on May 19th, we received the certified mill value from the county auditor. And so that's 674, 794 is the value of a single mill. The new request, Mr. Willis touched nicely on this. This item has not changed since we sat with you last week. This table is broken out in exhibits B and C, which are included in your agenda packet, the new positions. And then, of course, those new requests that are non-personnel in nature. general fund that's where we do the primary that's where we do most of our business and at one point the request was can you show me the delta between where we are today and what was adopted this time last year so that's the third column just for the general fund What was adopted, 102.9 million this time last year, 148.1 million for this year with an increase of 43%. How to read the table. External agencies, these are the groups in the community that you have longstanding financial partnerships with. And so same slides and the delta between first reading tonight and what was adopted if that committee received funding in the current fiscal year. The Old English District is noted on Exhibit F, which you just received, that was mentioned as a possible reduction last week. So you'll see that noted. But not removed, obviously. And so those are the external agencies. The fund balance appropriations, this is what you saw last week, but could change dramatically after conversation tonight. Regarding economic development, that specification building is actually a site improvement project for Heath Springs, and that was corrected on Exhibit F. You also have in your agenda packet the 18.7 broken down for the various and sundry fire apparatus. Parks and recreation, this item for the two minibuses was something you considered last week as a possible reduction. Similarly with planning and zoning the building to consolidate all of Formerly development services planning sold zoning building inspections stormwater That is something that you are proposing to remove from the fund balance list for this year noted F and I lost the dialogue with the voter registration and the special elections, but right now that is still presented on the fund balance list.

That's gonna need to come out, right? That was turned down by the Senate today, so.

Okay, thank you for the, okay, so that will be a deduction for second reading.

Thank you.

This is the summary of unassigned fund balance. And so when you're looking at this item, we know that at the close of the audit year, and that's always behind us, FY 2025, we had unassigned fund balance or savings available of 72 million. We know that this time last year, when you were adopting the FY 26 budget, you made a fund balance appropriation of 5 million. And then throughout the current budget season or this current budget year, you used fund balance via various budget amendments. And so those are listed. The 4.6 million is an estimate of what we would contribute back into fund balance at the close of FY26, like in the 13th, 14th month. And that's an estimate. And so then that totals now that $36.2 million reduction there might change after your conversation in the preceding slides and what you would like to use fund balance for. And of course, during your retreat, you had raised how do we strategically use our reserves. And so I will turn the floor over to our CFO, Ms. Sabrina Harris, to go through with you the following slides regarding minimum wage.

Good evening council members All right.

So we had looked at in previous budget workshops review scenarios related to the increase Potentially increasing the county's minimum hourly pay and so we looked at scenarios increasing to $17 an hour up to 19 and also up to $21 an hour and so what I'll do tonight is just briefly overview what we've already looked at and really just to inform you on being able to give staff direction on what option you'd like to have included. Each option includes a scenario that addresses compression as well. I will say as it relates to the categories, there's still some work that we intend to do with the categories that we have here. There are two groups in particular that we'll go back and revisit, one being the EMS-EMT group. We have a potential change in the model for EMS staff. If that's approved, then we would take these folks out of this scenario for increases, and they would be impacted by the change in that model, where they would effectively also receive an hourly increase. And then the second group will be in the voter registration and elections group. We know that there are poll workers that are captured in that group that will pull out of this scenario. So in each of the estimates that we've included, and it includes these staff, So we know that if it's approved, the estimate won't be higher than what we see on the screen because the potential of these two categories to be removed. All right, and so this is just a breakdown of each of those scenarios, really just compiling everything at a high level that we see here. And what we included in the budget recommendation was the option, number one, to increase the minimum hourly pay to $17 an hour. That would effectively impact 240 staff. with the impact to the budget of just over $980,000 and a 5% increase for the staff that are within the $17 to $19 range and a 3% increase for those at 1901 up to 2150. So in all, including the compression impact that we've factored in, you're looking at just over a $1.2 million increase. And the other options are there for comparison as well for council consideration. And so I'll jump back to that. Yes, ma'am.

Got questions? You know, I'm just going to state what I stated at our last meeting about the livable wage for our employees. And I'm going to suggest option one. At least that will bring them up. Not much, but a little bit. And as I said last time, we need to do something. We need to be consistent in these pay raises so we won't get so far behind. When it's time to give raises, don't wait two to three years to do a livable wage. We need to be consistent in granting our employees wages increase on a yearly basis. And I hope that... we're able to do option one because, as I said before, they pay the same as everybody else when it's time for shopping, gas, housing, and whatever. So my recommendation is option one, which is not much, but I think right now that's the best council can do.

All right, and I will add there, too, something we do not have included in the recommended budget but is an option for Council to consider is for the compensation and classification study. We don't have a price for that. In just kind of looking around online, it would probably be within the range of $125,000 to $225,000. It really would depend on what we want included in the study, but what we'd like to be able to do is... to be able to execute a comprehensive study to be able to look at our pay bans, to look at staff pay against internal staff, also against the market. Are they structured right? Are our job descriptions right? I mean, we can go as deep as we want to on that, but we can also put out a bid to be able to get pricing to be able to address it comprehensively versus, I think the approach that we're taking right now is a little bit piecemeal in that we're not addressing everyone, and we really don't know how far off the market or how far off we are internally as far as, I would say, like entry-level staff versus senior-level staff.

Are you recommending that we include that in this year's budget?

That we include in the FY27 budget as a fund balance appropriation, yes, ma'am.

Do you already have it in somewhere?

No, it's not included yet, but I do want to be able to present that to council, and that's something we can adjust for a second reading.

I have a question. Go ahead, Mr. Moss. What was our cost of the 2% across the board for everybody? What was that total on that? Do you have that in front of you?

I do not have that in front of me, but we can make sure we have that before we leave this evening.

Okay, I'd like to know what that is. I would just like to see where we're at versus... going to 3% and not doing this hourly rate adjustment, giving everybody a bigger raise. I mean, I wanna look at the numbers. And I'd like to have those pretty quick if you got them. Do you remember what those numbers were, Steve? Do you remember what the numbers was for the 2% increase across the board?

If we're going to talk about that, for me, that gap is too much difference between, I know public safety and what they do, but our other employment employees, this is a To me, it's more of a cost of living raise across the board is what I'm looking at. Because Mr. Willis said it, inflation's hit. But, you know, it's hit our constituents and it's hit our staff, too. And I think if you look at our projected revenue, I think we can— we could work it where we could get that closer together and raise the 2% a little bit and lower the other to get them closer together. I mean, that's up to y'all to get the numbers together. But to me, I hate to fuss, but I like looking at budget documents line by line item and Hey, I'm old school, and I'll be the first to tell you with everything that's coming at me right now, I'm a little bit lost. I'm sorry. I mean, I just... I'd like a little more clarity because, you know, we talked about making positions a half a year, and I'm looking at what we're given for first reading. Is that included? That's not included. Those cuts are not included.

The proposal would have to be an amendment, I believe.

The reductions list, that's... Right, the reductions list is not included. That's correct. So, I mean, that...

I'm looking for updated numbers. Me too. I just feel like numbers are going around and around in my head. I'm usually pretty good with numbers. That is my strength. I'm having trouble.

The stuff we discussed last week, I don't see those adjustments in front of me. to knowing where we stand any more than I did when I left here last week.

We do have to remember we met Thursday night all the way to eight o'clock. We had a day on Friday and then everybody was off on Monday. So if the expectation was everything was going to be changed by the day,

I guess the numbers that you passed out, the sheet that you passed out, is not reflected on what we're looking at today. We need to know what those numbers are after you take this away from that. And I'm sure that's what y'all are looking at. We just know it's an $8 million difference, but it's not showing on the slide.

We can update that, and I don't have that sheet in front of me, but I believe that the majority of these items on this list are items that were on the one-time fund balance appropriation list, so it really wouldn't impact the recurring budget, but we can absolutely go back and make the adjustment to the bottom line so that you can see all of those changes and where they occur.

Mr. Chairman, for a second reading, I am requesting a complete line item budget with the numbers from last year.

Comparative.

Comparative. Every item and how much more? The old ones like the new ones.

I'm old school. It's basically, I think, the sheet that was provided on May 6th.

Yeah, I want everything.

And I'd like an electronic version of that before the meeting.

Yeah, I mean, because...

You had a comment, Mr. Neal.

Yeah, while we're talking about it, I could definitely support option one. And the reasons why we got, when you look at it, the public works and parks and recreation, they own the low end and I'd like to see them get up and there's some others too that deserve to be at that.

Yes, sir.

While we're on that, do you know what the wages, the minimum pay was before we went to $15?

Before we went to 15, I believe the lowest that I can recall seeing was about 1250. Okay.

Because I made an assumption on $13 an hour. So that would mean that last year when we went up to 15% or $15, we had a 15% increase. And then this year, if we approve it to the $17, that's an additional 13%, which means over those last two years, that has increased 31%. I don't think any of our constituents have seen an increase of 31% in their salary despite all the inflationary pressures that they are feeling. So I will repeat what I said last time that I am concerned that we are doing this budget on the backs of our constituents who cannot afford this and who are suffering the same economic hardships that everyone else is facing. And I get that this is difficult. But we can't make this up by having those who cannot afford and don't have a choice and forcing them to pay this.

I don't even feel like... debating you tonight because it's very clear that with the cost of living, that we've got to do something to compensate our staff. You keep talking about constituents. I have those same constituents to deal with. And people know that you can't live off last year. We need to do something to accommodate our staff so they can understand that we appreciate what they do so we won't lose them to other counties and other cities. I don't care what the job is. It could be road, maintenance, anything. Every job in our county is important. I don't care whether it's a sheriff, EMS, road maintenance, parking directs. They all make this county work, and we need to compensate them on that.

You're willing to have our constituents pay for that?

I will have to pay for it.

I'm asking for the constituents who are below the poverty line.

My constituents will pay for it, and they are below. Remember, I live in the lowest economic development area.

Okay.

Mr. Chair. Go ahead, Mr. Graham. Just to make sure I'm clear, that 240 includes part-time and full-time?

It does. Yes, sir.

Would it be possible for us to get a breakdown of what full-time and part-time is? Yes, sir. And then what the impact, you know, if we did it the full 240, and then what the impact would be if we did just full-time?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

I thought we talked about that last week, but we didn't get those numbers up. That's what I was saying. Everything's the same as it was last week.

Any other discussion?

One other request. So we talked about getting the cost of the 2%. Could we get the cost of the 6% for the sheriff?

Yes, sir. What we can arrange to do is any of the salary related adjustments. We'll summarize that separately.

And kind of what I'm looking for and I'm assuming that others are looking for is, you know, as you move, it's almost like what's the cost of a percent. Like if you're moving one up or moving one down, what is, what does that impact?

Oh, what's, what's the total pool? Yeah. Both sides of the public safety side. If we go down one and on the, employees, whatever. So we'll have some hard numbers.

What would be helpful, I think, is probably looking at the total current pool of what it looks like right now so that we can even make the adjustments if we wanted to, so that we can see if we move one up, what it has, the effect that it has on something else. Because I'd like to see a 6% on the coroner's office and EMS and for fire as well.

Any other discussion? Go ahead, Mr. Winless.

Mr. Chairman, members of the council, if I could, a couple of things on the sheet that was handed out tonight. Obviously, based on the action of the state senate today, with y'all's permission, we'll kill the $250,000 for the non-existent August election.

Yes, please.

We'll take care of that. Second thing, Sheriff, if you could come up for a second. Noticed on here, there was a proposal For the eight correctional officers, but six of them being half year, with opening in February, is that going to be a problem for certification? I know the booking clerks wouldn't be a problem.

Well, and that's really just two officers that we're talking about other than the four booking clerks. And, yeah, I think that's what we can do. I'm going to have difficulty hiring these people to begin with. So, yeah, I think so. And to answer your question, Councilman, it was 1,078,000 for the 6%, and that includes fringe.

Sheriff, can you remind us again how many officers per county population you all have compared to other counties? I'm trying to understand the efficiency that you all have compared to other counties.

I got 1.34 per 1,000. And when you compare us to some of the other counties like Florence and Pickens and Sumter, they serve a less populated area because of the municipalities and the military bases and things like that. Like Sumter, I think they have a little over three officers per thousand. So I got the lowest amount when you compare us to some of the similar sized counties. And it's 1.34.

Thank you for that. And I think that's part of the reason why I feel strongly about when you're asking for a 6%, the same thing as coroner's office, EMS, and our fire departments. They are extremely efficient in how they're operating. And we need to be able to reward that because how much more would it cost if we had three officers for every thousand?

Well, you figure about 200,000, 170.

We're basically tripling our budget. It's basically tripling our budget. Yeah, and personnel.

Go ahead. He was not here to answer some questions y'all may have. Scott Hernandez is here to talk about the cybersecurity manager. There were questions about that. Admittedly, I'm not a person to ask about anything computer related.

My thoughts on that is we have a new administrator starting July the 1st, and he will be coming in in his evaluation process. It's not that... I think he needs to look at this and if something he's, you know, got to have it, I wouldn't oppose a budget amendment for that position. But I would like to see the new administrator evaluate everything.

Mr. Chair, I would like Chris to come up and justify these too many buses that... It's all, but I want him to understand, I want us to understand the importance of those buses and why he recommended that in his budget.

So, good evening. The mini buses provide a great deal of flexibility for us. it lessens the restriction and the challenges we have with CDL bus drivers yes we are trying to get some more staff certified for that but the flexibility it gives us for getting around from school to school other departments can use it we' ve talked about this with the sheriffs academy this summer economic development can use it for tours this isn' t I think there's other opportunities to be able to use this. beyond just summer camp after school our special events that we use for shuttles to get people around parking lots to transport them to and from such as the July 3rd out at Buford or the school district special events the school districts spring games special olympics where we track where we're running shuttles for three hours so it lessens the need for the bigger buses it lessens the need and the pressure on having CDL drivers Throughout the year the big buses are are handy and helpful But they're old or antiquated and we try not to use them unless we're going on long rides Questions Just ask your question this is related to we've talked about having

Two associates to the facility managers at Buford and Andrew Jackson. I'm trying to, hopefully we can get these numbers down to a balanced budget. Is that an issue if that's a half-year job starting January 1st?

No, it's not.

Okay. Okay. All right, and what about the other one? Is that something you need at this time, or can you haul it off to January? You have a...

The other part-time position?

You're converting to full-time. You need that now?

That can wait until January as well. Yes, sir.

January.

Okay. All right. I appreciate your support.

Sure. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you, sir. You're welcome.

I do want to do a point of clarity regarding the purpose of the proposed list here. Because there was no vote taken, that is why you're not seeing a change in a line item and a corresponding line item detail from last week. So we were trying to capture all of your interests here and then looking for the vote tonight. So for the second reading, you would see that line item detail and the change and the bigger picture. than the big picture.

Let me ask some point of clarification. From these items here that we talked about at our last meeting, taking them out the budget, will we have to vote on these items before they can put them into the second reading? This list here, will we need to do that?

That is the intention, yes.

So that we could change what's been recommended. And if at this point, if we see anything on this list we need to pull out, we need to do it tonight.

Preferably, right?

Yes.

And just to be clear, there's reductions on here, but there's an addition for the airport terminal. That's an addition, not a subtraction, correct?

That is an addition, and that is correct. That came in, I think, a day or two ago for the MUSC helicopter crew. So if that's something that you want to pursue, we would add that back in and propose it as a fund balance appropriation. So that memorandum just came in with that estimate.

I would propose waiting until the new administrator gets here, because that's going to take some negotiations on who's gonna pay for that is, you know, if the county's gonna pay $250,000, there's gonna have to be some numbers negotiating on who does what.

So I guess I'm asking you, Mr. Chair, do we vote on these items here before the second reading?

We can vote. to have these reductions made after tonight's vote, as part of tonight's vote. We may have to amend the original motion to do that. Yes, we can vote to have these as a part.

Mr. Chair. So we talked a little bit about revenue and re-looking at revenue, so I just want to understand what direction Staff is looking for us on revenue or are we, how are we addressing the revenue side of this equation?

That is the next section of the presentation. I'm gonna walk through. If you're ready to pivot off of expenditures and into the revenue.

I got two more, two more items.

Sure.

So county council salaries, are there any increases there?

Yes.

What are the increases?

I can get my spreadsheet. I can answer that.

I have no idea, because I've been out four years, what the current salary is. I looked at the average salary of a council member for tier two county, which is 100,000 population above. It's a little over 18,000. I propose putting 18 in as the base.

I would suggest that we cut that out and give that to the staff. whether it's public safety.

Stay out of my pocketbook.

Why? You're getting into the constituents pocketbook.

No, you stay out of my pocketbook and I'll stay out of yours.

I agree with Mr. Louise. I'll make that motion to the first amendment to the budget to leave the council's salary.

No, before you make that, before. I want to make a motion. I'll second that motion. Discussion. Now, I wanna be very clear on this, and I'm not trying to talk down on anybody. You see these six men up here are very well positioned with their salaries and everything else. They don't think about those who are in need like a retired woman who is single. It's not the fact that, you know, This is not a volunteer position, y'all, if y'all don't. And I think that's what y'all look at. This is a position where we get a stipend, and our stipends are very low. I've never heard of a council voting not to take a stipend. But y'all vote on your stipend. Don't vote on mine if we can make that possible. I wish Jenny was here so we could see whether we could make that legal. You vote on your own. Don't vote on mine.

I'd like to know how many single retired women are below the poverty line and will be paying these increases across the staff. I'd like to know that in the county.

That has nothing to do. You're always bringing that up, Jose. You just said a retired single woman. We're talking about the stipends here. We're talking about seven council members. That's it. We're not talking about no constituents. We're not talking about staff.

You can cut and slice it however you want.

We're talking about council members.

I'm talking about constituents.

I know y'all going to vote against it, but this is the fourth year, two years. You voted on every two years. You voted on this every two years. I'm not understanding that. I really am not. And, Jose, you're the one who brought it up.

I did.

You're an attorney. You have a good salary.

I'm not a practicing attorney.

But you're an attorney, you do legal work on your job.

No, I don't.

Thank you for telling me what I do for my job. How did you know that? I thought because when I looked it up, it said you were an attorney by trade. Wow. You don't have your attorney license?

I have an attorney license.

Case closed.

Mr. Chair. Thank you for bringing my background into this. It will continue.

You're in my pocketbook.

My comments are this. I think it's I have issues with being a sitting sitting on council and voting for increase in my salary. I think that's It's problematic. I don't know the answer to that. On the flip side of that, we all know that this is a challenging position and we all spend a lot of hours doing this. And I do think there is some... there's some merit in attracting others that might be interested in doing this in the future. But again, I don't have an answer for this. I don't want to vote for a race for myself, but I am interested in maybe there's a way in the future, whether that be two or three years where that we do align herself more with what a, a County or size actually does pay council. Cause this is, it's not a volunteer. Everybody up here knows it's not a volunteer. It feels like a volunteer, but it's, it's a lot of, it's a lot of work, but we need good people to, to be in these chairs and do this moving forward.

And to speak to what you said, Stuart, I wish someone else could vote on it, but it's left up to us to vote on it. So if that's the case, we need to get a legal version on whether somebody else could vote on county salary. I know the State House vote on their salaries.

That did not go very well.

And here's what I would say. But just one more discussion, what I would really love to see is instead of looking at it as a two to three years down the road, why don't we do what we say we're gonna do and raise the incomes of our constituents and do what we can for economic development so that everyone rises and it's not just staff or county council. We need to support our constituents who are paying for our jobs.

You know, Jose, now I'm 100% in favor of that. If we could up the salaries of all of our constituents by bringing in industry in here that would do that, I'm 100% behind that. Let's focus on that. But as you said, that's years down the road. Right now, we're talking about a stipend. Let me tell you, the little bit of money that we're going to get will not make a difference. I'm just trying to argue a point with you. The little thousand or so dollars we get will not make a difference. It's just the fact of the matter is, if we don't want to vote on our salary, somebody else needs to do it. But I didn't... get elected to this position, run for the position because of the pay. I never knew it paid anything. I never knew it had a stipend. It's just a fact of the matter is that if we're going to move forward with it, we've got to figure out who's going to vote on it. I don't necessarily have to vote on it. The staff can vote on it as long as it's voted on and not presented by council.

Unfortunately, I think state law clearly states that we have to pass a budget in part of Our, what we are paid is part of that budget, so we're the ones that have to vote on it. We do have a motion, we have an amendment on the floor. Go ahead, Mr. Willis.

If I could just make a statement for the record. I consulted with none of the council members. I was not asked by any council members. I simply took association of county data for comparable sized counties. and utilized that, that was the origin of the proposal. Just wanna make clear for anybody watching and for posterity and the record, no council member.

We have a motion from Mr. Harper.

And a second by Mr. Graham.

And a second by Mr. Graham for an amendment.

Sir. Read the motion.

Lauren, can you read that motion? Or has it been too much stuff over the water, over the bridge?

I beg to amend the budget to remove council pay raise.

All right. Do you accept that change, Mr. Graham, or accept that? Okay, we have a motion for an amendment from Mr. Harper, a second from Mr. Graham. I think we've talked about the death, so all those in favor of Mr. Harper's motion, please raise your right hand. All those opposed? Can I raise both hands? You can, but only count as one.

Mr. Chairman, can I ask another question on our budget?

Yes, sir.

You know, I'm committed to no tax increase for our constituents. And I don't know, I get the feeling that council is pretty, does not have an issue with spending our fund balance on fire trucks and equipment or anything that'll help our county. And we're looking at dropping possibly two million, taking two million off from economic development and $4 million from planning and zoning. What impact does it have on our millage? I know it wouldn't be operating on our debt millage if we paid $6 million or something like that on debt millage. Does that make sense? or am I marking up the wrong tree? Would that have an impact on the budget or can we pay in advance? I don't know.

It depends on how the bonds are written. Some bonds are not callable. Some bonds you can call after a point in time. That would be something we would have to investigate at this point in time.

I mean, our debt millage is dropping from 7.2 to 2.5. I mean, it actually is material. If you look at it overall, like the county operating, we're proposing going up seven mills and then you can't take out the drop in the county debt down to 4.7 mills. What it actually looks like on a $100,000 house is $28 increase is basically what you're looking at. And you can times that times whatever.

With these deductions. That's including everything.

That's including everything. So our county millage for county operating, county debt, capital replacement, courthouse security, with this current proposal, with county operating going to 83.5 mils, it'd be a 2.3 net increase. That doesn't include these cuts here.

No. We're going to have to cut operating if you're going to not have a tax increase, not the fund balance.

All right, I ask.

Just trying to think outside the box. I'm just saying that's what the millage difference is. I mean, that's the impact, too. That's my biggest concern. We talk about mills and all that other stuff. It's like, how much is... The the the our citizen gonna pay in property taxes. I mean, that's what really That's what everybody cares about like how much is that increasing or decreasing or is it saying the same? I'm just making the comment that when you net out the proposal as a net increase of 2.3 mils on $100,000 houses $28

But have we talked about the revenue?

Who has a $200,000 house anymore?

Well, yeah, then you can multiply it times three or whatever to get to where you need to be, yes.

That's a big increase.

It at least gives you an idea.

Houses is $400,000, $500,000, that's a lot. It should be getting back down to what it was.

Do we have any other discussion?

Can I make a motion to, I got a couple positions that I would like to see. from to start at January the first instead of July the first would be the recreation facility managers at Beaufort and Andrew Jackson. I'd like to see them go to a half a year. I'd like to see the Parks and Recreation, the Recreation Associate converted two part-time to two full-time positions. That also would be delayed till January the 1st. I would also like to see all the proposed such on this page to be presented to us on our second reading.

Are you including subtracting the 250,000 from the voter registration as well?

I had the 250 and not including the airport card. Second.

I second that.

Okay, we have a motion and second. Lauren, have you captured all of that? Can we go, can we? Would you like to read it back so we can make sure?

I'll definitely have to go back and listen to the recording for that. But he's wanting to change the recreation facility manager at, was it Buford and AJ, to start January 1st and then change the associate position, the two part-time to two full-time to January 1st. and include everything on Exhibit F except for the voter registration.

Including the voter registration?

Including it.

Yeah, so we're reducing all of it.

Oh, it's not on there. It's $250,000 for the special elections we budgeted for August, which won't happen now.

And then not including the airport terminal.

Okay, we have the amendment has been restated. Is there any discussion? All right, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it is unanimous.

Mr. Chairman, as it has been discussed, I think for me right now, my biggest concern is that we have all the information available on the salary adjustments on the impact of our budget. And I think we can make it work.

All right. Staff has heard that and they will have that prepared for us at second reading.

Before second reading would be great to have information so we can prepare.

If we can have it the week before so that we can prepare ideally the revised budget at that point in time so we can have time to review it.

Zip it, you want the detailed line item budget.

And would, I would ask that the administrator and the finance look through the budget again and see if there, since we are reducing our, what we were gonna take off fund balance by six, $7 million, if there's anything, you know, even a half mil or a mil, One-time expenses that's in the budget.

It could be transferred over non-recurring that Does it let us look at it if there is if there isn't anything that's fine, but I know James gonna get to the revenue, but I guess my concern is With these cuts that we're doing how much do we need to cut to meet our revenue? without increasing taxes or anything. Are we there yet with all of our revenues, sources?

That's a great question, Ms. McGriff. So with the FY27, where it is as recommended, the 83.5, you would have to cut the $8 million, which you have here. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry. Let me say that. If you want the 76.5 millage increase to stay the same, then you would cut the $8 million to get there. If you want the whole package the way it is and no changes, then you would do the recommended millage of 83.5. And then it goes to Mr. Graham's point of what is the impact on the taxpayer? It's the $28, if you had said. So if you want a no millage increase, Exhibit 7, Exhibit F, excuse me. If you want to increase the millage rate, then you get a balanced budget with the 83.5. Does that make sense?

If you want. We just did the amendment where we took it out. So the eight million.

Yeah, we took this out already.

So let's just take a look at where the numbers end up after the changes that we've made. Because I think you all need to go back and redo the calculations based off everything that was cut today.

Yeah. Go ahead, Mr. Willis.

If I could pose a question for council, so clarification for finance staff itself. When you say no mill increase, we're talking total county millage, not just general fund, just total, because we do have an offset in that debt service.

I think council is, I mean, amenable to look at it.

I am. I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, we got to be very efficient in how we use funds that have been given to us. So, but I do think there is some value in what the tax, what the citizen actually pays. And I think if we can be net neutral on that, then I'm okay with that.

The other thing, just throwing this out, is somebody who, as of June 30th, back in June retirement, talked, we need to do something this year for a public information push, because I had to do it in my neighborhood last year when the tax bills came out. I live inside the city of Lancaster, and when you look at my tax bill, I have county taxes, I have city taxes, and I have school taxes. The county taxes were the least of the three. But y'all seven catch grief for stuff you can't control by other bodies.

Well, we've asked before to have the treasurer redesign the tax bill to make it a little more readable and transparent and maybe even have it to where you can see last year's taxes versus this year's taxes. that would require some changes. Hopefully we could get done before the tax bills have to go out. Are we at a point where we can close this out and have a vote as amended?

I got one more thing. I would like to know for second reading when you send this stuff out or whatever, a dollar amount that we need to get to where we have no tax increase. And that way we'll know how much we got to fiddle with or whatever, add to or take away.

I think we'll have that information. No, don't.

She's saying we won't. Go ahead. With all due respect, that's Exhibit F. I can't hear you.

With all due respect, that's Exhibit F. If you do not want a tax millage increase, you would bring the budget down by $8 million. $8 million.

Yeah, she's talking.

Yeah, but you're talking about all this other stuff that we took out.

I want to know.

I guess where we're confused is that there's a lot of capital.

You're still leaving those others in, that $8 million that we done took out.

We'll just need to recalculate with some of the amendments. And then that would allow, what do we want to do? Council may want to do on salaries because there will be some.

And I guess, Jamie, is the confusion is this capital expenses in here opposed to general fund.

Yeah, this capital should be.

Take that out because that's another source, funding source.

Yeah.

I think that's the.

That's what's confusing the whole thing. Are y'all leaving that in there? And it is confusing for the whole thing. Yeah.

Before you did your work today, that is what you would have to do to get a no millage increase, scenario one.

That is your cut at the 7.1 million.

It considers, and this is slide number 56. If you want to go to the recommended budget level, that's the 83.50, you would cut 2.5. if you didn't look at exhibit seven today. If you did scenario three, 87.50, you would net zero.

I think where I'm confused is I would have assumed that the capital say for economic development and planning zoning was in that 36 million. It is. So how, I guess I'm not understanding if we're cutting our fund balance, how that would impact

You're looking at the cut to the recurring 113. Okay.

Again, I'm not understanding. I would have assumed that the $2 million and the $4 million were actually coming out of fund balance, not out of... That's where we're stuck. Mm-hmm.

Just to kind of add some clarity so the list that we talked about before that has the reductions That's what I was referring to before Before that the majority of those things on that list they live in that fund balance appropriation bucket. They're one time They're coming from our reserves so to cut those there is no impact to the recurring budget And so if you want us realize doesn't change the D doesn't range.

That's what he's saying. Yes, and we're getting pushback. I

And then all our discussion. I don't think you're getting pushed back. I think there might have been misunderstanding, but I just wanted to clarify that. You know, all our discussion tonight has been

on expenses, but I'm looking at a new revenue growth of $6.4 million, so that offsets a lot of what our concerns are, and I think with the new numbers, I think we're all gonna be right on where we need and be able to- Mr. Willis, you know what we want.

You've done this long enough with us. You explain it to them what we want.

Ms. Merc Dupont has joined us, so I think she had something she wanted to contribute.

I think we lost the.

Okay, all right, is there any further discussion?

I do have one on the, regarding the Arrowwood. I would like to make a motion to remove that $400,000. I just can't, anyway, that's my motion.

What now, would you repeat that?

The motion is to remove the $400,000 that was for the Arrowwood project.

I will second that.

I do believe that's another item that's on the fund balance appropriation list, but we can adjust that as well.

It's got to be voted on.

Mr.

Chair, I think we still have a motion open from.

Do we have funds from last year that's committed to this project? Yeah.

Is Ms. Merk-Dupont back? I thought I heard something.

We had 400,000 I think from last year. And we needed 400 more to complete the project.

We had a motion and a second on the floor for another amendment.

Before you start cutting that project, could you ask Jeff Cato to come up, what would be the impact on our road system if we cut that particular project? I didn't hear you.

It won't happen.

You won't do it. From my perspective, it's hard to justify spending $800,000 on that specific project total.

If I remember correctly, I think Mr. Cato said it impacted eight households.

No, that's not correct. I said the scope of the construction. Jeff, Jeff. Come on up to the microphone.

project you're going to have to pipe in and relay some larger storm drain pipe the work limits of that is eight property owners the road itself is what floods to stop it floods just like black horse run now that's not my project but it's been going on for a long time so i guess you could say it would affect everyone that uses that avenue periodically when it floods that's but i mean it is not a dead end but to answer the question you cut it we're not going to do it

Thank you. Is there any other discussion? Could we have, before we do that, could we have information of how many times the road is blocked per year? And is there a second entrance into that section of the neighborhood?

Jeff, what's it doing? Isn't it washing the roads? I mean, it's eventually going to have to go in and repair the roads again, right? It's going to wash the stone out.

In heavy rains, it floods. It overtops the road. You can't drive through it, but people can. I mean, it's not major flooding by any means, but again, this is a project we've had for years. We've tried in-house changing the drive. It's a much larger scope of that, which is why we asked for the money last year, but we came in here at this time, and you told us twice, if you need more, come back. We know we're going to need more, so we're coming back. If you don't want to fund it, we're not going to do the job. We don't have the funding in our regular budget to do it.

Are there a possibility of getting a...

some type of a grant there there could be a possibility in september to to write for a small ria grant to cover you know but again again it's not going to cover all of it you're going to have to match right you're going to have to have some funding for that but that's that's where we are with that we could look at it at that point to be clear there is 400 000 now which is not enough to complete the project but at some point even if we get a grant we're going to have to match that

get additional funds to complete the project, even with the grant. So are we gonna continue to delay?

There's already $400,000.

But he needed an additional $400,000.

Yes, the construction cost alone is gonna be $800,000.

And it's going to go up by the time it's going up more. But here we go, kicking that can that y'all talk about. We know the project is going to be $800,000. Are we going to continue to delay it? Price goes up and then we get to again, we won't do it.

I look at it from a priority perspective of what we need to spend money on in the county, and while I won't say that that doesn't need to be done, but are there other things that we can spend that on that make more sense at this time?

I'm sure folks in the Arrowwood division think it's a priority.

That's County Road, is that correct?

That one is, yes. That's your district, right? It's my district. You don't think it's a priority?

I didn't say it wasn't a priority. What I'm saying is there's other things that we can spend those funds on right now, and I'm just concerned about spending $800,000 in one concentrated area at this time.

If we don't do this, we're going to eventually wash the road out, and then we're going to have more major repairs to the road. Anytime you've got erosion and stuff, it's going to eventually wash the road out.

Eventually it could become a bigger problem, but as we know, and as we've told you all, I mean, Arrowwood's not unique, but it is an older development with an aged infrastructure. So this happens to be at the tail end of an outfall near a creek where you could Repair this. I mean, lovely for one day, you'd love to fix everything in there. There are drainage problems all within that development, some small, some larger. This is just the largest one currently at this time and has been because when it does rain like it did Friday night, the road does, you know, the road does overtop and it does cause problems again to get back to the property owners. Those eight right there are affected the most with their ditches and yards washing away, you know, but That could be however you want to look at it. I'm sure if it's your yard, it's major. If it's not your yard, it's probably minor erosion. But that's where we're at with that. Again, it's been a long time. We've tried it since we had it, since we inherited the problem in there. We've tried everything in-house, and we knew this would be a big project. So naturally, we started studying it, getting engineers to look at it, knew it was going to be a big problem. That's why we're asking for it. But like I said, if it's not funded, we'll try for the grant. But there's no guarantee to get that. But that's why we're asking for it. It's not something we pulled out of the air. This is a longstanding project, again. on a county maintained road. And while I'm up here, I get pushed back all the time at why does the county do so much for state roads and not our own? This is one that happens to be our own. So naturally, I'm gonna vote for it. Thank you.

Mr. Willis, if we do go ahead and do this, if we do get a grant, can we apply that money back to the county, back to fund balance?

Won't be spent unless we have to.

Right.

I'll make one other point. when we start talking about prioritizing of funds, I mean, we just voted to remove the parks and recs mini buses, which was $266,000. You start thinking about spending $800,000 here. You know, what are those things on that list that might be something you'd be interested in funding other than this? So that's kind of the way I'm thinking about it.

So you're saying take that off and put the...

I'm just saying it opens up funds to use on other things if we so choose.

So we have $400,000 that's already been approved for the project. Are you talking about backing that out?

No, I'm just talking about this current budget cycle. We're talking about $400,000 in addition to the $400,000 that were already funded last year.

The $400,000 is a match for...

Mr. Chairman, well, this is our first reading. We have two more opportunities. So I would like to go ahead and vote on this. Whichever side loses will have the opportunity. We have a motion and a second on the floor. To convince the other side. Is that fair?

We have a motion and a second from Mr. Graham and Mr. Louise. I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? Motion to take the 400,000.

Move the 400,000 out.

400,000 from the budget. Okay, we have a motion, second. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed? Okay, it did not pass. All right.

What was the number?

Five to two. Okay, we're back. to approving the original motion to approve the budget for first reading with all the amendments that we have made. Have we missed a vote on any amendments, Warren?

I have one more question on, have we done anything on the fire stations and the fire districts?

At this point, no, sir. One of the things that council's gonna have to look at, and this is one you have to talk to county attorney on, Are we going to look at using the county-wide capital? Indian land has its own fire fee. There's some questions that are gonna have to be answered. As I've indicated, there's been a plan, from what I understand, been kicked around for a couple of years for the county-wide capital district. but how exactly that would interplay with the Indian land fire fee, that's a legal question, I'm not sure. Other two that have been talked about, if there was a capital district, no problem.

So I think I've mentioned this before and with these budget readings. I believe there is a legal question about whether Indian land should be paying a rooftop fee in addition to all the other fees that are going to fire services in the county. So basically, Indian land is getting doubly taxed. And perhaps the media can look into that, or if there's a lawyer out there that can advise us on that. But that is a big concern of mine. I have said it multiple times. I've danced around it. I'm saying it bluntly now. It is an issue that we have to address now. It's not a vote issue, it's a legal issue.

The Indian Land Fire District is like the city. It's an enhanced service more than what the rest of the county's got. It's just like the city's doing the same thing. The city has county citizens in there paying county taxes. and they paying another fire fee. But I mean, we gotta look, it's just, there's a difference between enhanced services and a fire service.

I hear you, I just think there's probably something that needs to be looked at.

Well, we can still pay for fire stations out of fund balance. I mean, that's an option.

I'm going to tell you what we need to do. We need to wait until we get a new administrator here. We need to get a new fire director hired. Whatever we do is going to affect the county for years and years to come. If we jump into this thing, just jump into it, you can really be hurting this county in the long run. We need to get people in place and study this thing and make sure we're doing the right thing.

Mr. Chair, with all due restrict, Mr. Wine Settler, we're not jumping into anything on Harrisburg Road. That thing has been talked about for years and years and years and years and years, and we are one fire away, and it almost happened on Sunday night. We need to take steps and take care of this. To sit here and ask us to wait again and again and again, it's not fair to NDON and it's not fair to our citizens that are relying on us to take care of them from a safety perspective.

What we need to do probably is our chair pick an ad hoc committee and just look at this thing and what the county council wants to spend on firehouses. And if anybody else wants anything more, they can pitch in and pay the difference. But we need to come up with a number. that will work all over the whole county.

Mr. Chair, we've tried over all the years, I can't talk about the last four, but treat all the departments equally, whether it's equipment, you know, training, whatever, including the city. But, you know, to date, in the history of Lancaster County, we've spent exactly zero dollars on fire stations. So this is going to, it would be something new.

Mr. Chair, I think we are already looking at funding options for these fire stations, which I think that is a true priority when it comes to funding. We just need to figure out a way on how we're going to pay for Harrisburg and Edgewater. And we need to do that as soon as possible.

Okay. I'm gonna make a motion that we put 600 million, I mean six million, I like that 600 million. We're gonna put six million fund balance in to pay for the Harrisburg Road Station. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?

Where would that leave us with our fund balance?

Well, we just knocked out some money off the fund balance. There's six right there.

There's two and four right there. There's two million from the capital improvement project for economic development and four million that we had for planning and zoning that we took out so we could add it back in. And it shouldn't affect the operating millage rate.

And I agree with everything that everybody else has said. We need to get together and we need to do this, but I mean, we've talked about this fire station for five years, if not longer, and the need just gets worse and worse every day. And we need to do something about it. If we're going to talk about doing infrastructure and taking care of things, then we need to move to the point of doing it. Mr. Chairman. Go ahead, Mr. Neal.

While we're doing it, can I make a motion on Edgewater?

Sure can. We got a motion on the floor. Make a substitute motion to add Edgewater.

We need some definite money numbers here, y'all.

You're going to get your fund balance below 30%.

We're talking about funding, and we don't have any definite numbers in front of us, and we know that we saved some money right here. but that's going, we still don't have any definite numbers. I'm in favor of the fire station at Harrisburg, don't get me wrong, but I would like to see definite numbers. Can we wait to vote on it at our next meeting when we get the definite numbers?

You can always vote on it again at the second reading, but just cause it gets turned down at the first reading, it can be brought back up at the second reading too.

We can approve this one and then add the other.

I'm good with that. It seems the consensus, and I guess we'll vote on it in a minute, but is that we understand that the county, it is a change, the county has not paid for fire stations, but I think the consensus, or at least from, is that we are moving towards that, so I think we can, we do have funds, we need to allocate the funds, and we need to move forward with something.

And I do understand that, but can we wait on definite numbers, y'all? We throwing numbers out there, and I know we're saving in one part, but, It's nothing that's gonna happen between now and the second reading. If we get definite numbers, let's vote on definite numbers. We always say we wanna know exactly what we're doing.

And we need to look at, can we do this for four million? I mean, y'all just up and spending $6 million and we don't know if it can be done for you. That's why I want a study done on it and what will cost, our fire departments, if you go to put one at Edgewater or wherever you're going to put one, you're going to do a cost. But you're talking about spending $6 million and you sit over here and we're trying to save our constituents money and now we are spending money that we don't know if we can get it done cheaper.

We got one estimate that was higher. We got one estimate that potentially is lower based off of what Fort Lawn has done. We're not spending the funds right now. We're just allocating it. So I agree we have to look at it and we have to make the appropriate analysis and we have to make sure that the engineering and everything is as cost effective and value engineered as possible. But we have to start allocating the funds so that it's secure and at least there's a pocket there for the funds to go to.

If you vote to approve $6 million tonight, it's approved. There won't be no backing out of it.

It's approved for that amount of money, but we still haven't gone to bid on anything. It may cost more, it may cost less, but we won't know until those bids are opened.

It will be that or more.

you know how much y'all talk about definite numbers and let's get the cost. Now you're saying let's vote on it and then second reading will come with the definite number. That's gonna affect the budget.

I've heard Chief Nicholson multiple times give an estimate and with hard dollars about how much it's gonna cost. And they're over that $6 million. He's basically, well maybe, could you come up Mr. Chief?

It's not going to make any difference between the first reading and the second reading. We'll just have some definite numbers. I'm not talking about how much Greg, how much he's recommending. I'm talking about how much is going to affect the general fund.

It's not how much he's recommending. It's how much he has gotten for an estimate to complete the project. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. Yes, we're getting ranges. One company or one developer I looked at or a design build, It really depends on the size. Obviously, the size of the station, but they're saying right now it's about between 450 and 550 a square foot. I went to an open house today and theirs was $642 a square foot. It really depends on who bids it out, what you get, what size you get. Obviously, we would like to build a 50-year building, which is It's going to be on the higher end, but it's going to last, and you don't have to keep adding money to it. You build a $4 million building or a $2 million building, it's going to be an ongoing maintenance issue because it's just not going to hold up. That's having metal walls with insulation versus block walls. It's just a huge difference.

So just to repeat, these are estimates based off of what you've seen, not just a number that you're picking out of the air.

No, sir. Okay. The actual station that we've talked about is like 7.5 million. Between 7 and 7.5, but then you got to add your furnitures and then you got to add contingency. So when you're talking about 10, $11 million, that's including a 20% of contingency fund for the county. It wants a 20% for like furniture, computers, all that actual stations, like seven to seven and a half million. And that is talking to the design build companies.

If we allocate $6 million, can you build a station on that site?

Yes.

What capital do y'all have available to build a station?

I just checked, our fund balance I think was right at 1.8.

Is it added to every year?

Yes, and that's not counting what we add to this year. And like I said in the last meeting, For us to have a $700 or $7 million payment, as in it's probably going to be $700,000 a year, we pay $175,000 on our Pleasant Valley Station, and we still owe however many years on that. Even if we had to bond the other $2 million, we can adjust that payment. It's not that bad for us, but we can't. I can't step out and say we can have a million-dollar payment every year between the two stations.

I can't do that.

But if it's $200,000 added to it, that's doable. But also, like I said, we also have our fund balance that we can absolutely use.

Okay.

You know, I agree. I don't necessarily agree with all the numbers, but I would like some more, you know, hard numbers if we if we commit for me and if we commit six million that. that with both those scenarios, will it work or will it not work?

I mean, I would commit that. Obviously, we want it as cheap as we can get it also. It will absolutely, you know, it has to go to bid and whatever those numbers come out. We're committed to the county. If you all say $6 million and it comes in at $4 million, then, hey, we saved $2 million and that's fantastic for everybody. We are... we're not just out there trying to say we need $6 million to build this Taj Mahal. That's not it. And as I said, if you, if you want to look at the station, I'd be glad for y'all to come up and look at our station too. That is pretty much what we're designing by and see the difference.

Have any other further discussion? Hearing none, we have an amendment on the floor to allocate $6 million for a fire station for Pleasant Valley Fire Department or for Indian Land Consolidated. All those in favor, please raise your right hand.

I'll support it on the first reading.

We have a vote of six. All those opposed? The vote is six to one.

Mr. Chair and Finance Committee, Please have us some definite numbers as close as you can to where we're at with the general fund and fund balance and all that. And if we know we're allocating six million, we really need to stay as close within that six million or lower if possible. Absolutely.

Okay, do we have any further discussion? Okay, we're going to vote on the budget as amended multiple times. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, passes six to one. Okay, we're gonna move on now to item eight E, public hearing and first reading of ordinance number 2026-2037. and ordinance to amend ordinance number 2021-1726 relating to the adoption of a revised Lancaster County capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2021-2022 through 2030-2031 as recommended by the Lancaster County Planning Commission. We do not have a public hearing for this, so we'll move on to, do we have a motion to approve?

I'll move.

I have a motion from Mr. McGriff. Do we have a second? Second. I have a second from Mr. Graham. Josiah.

Good evening. Give me one moment, please. And just for the record, we had the public hearing, but no one signed up. Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good evening, council members. Josiah Park, budget analyst, here to walk us through the first stage of our annual revised CIP adoption. I understand, obviously, the conversations that have been going on, this has been adjusted a lot since this deck was made. Feel free to raise any concerns or comments that you would like me to write down, and we'll go through the next steps in a moment. Our agenda for tonight begins with our public hearing, which has concluded. The media posting, which is located as an affidavit in your agenda packet. Next, we'll review the overall CIP process one more time and how we as a government prioritize spending on capital projects. Once our background understanding is established, we'll walk through the initial list of new and revised projects that are included at this moment for first reading. Please note that, like the operating budget, desired council revisions voiced at our Thursday special meeting last week will not be reflected on this iteration of the CIP document and on the slides. However, I encourage council members to stop me at any time during this presentation and make any comments and I'll record them as we go, as well as to do my best to answer any questions raised along the way. Finally, I would ask the chairman to facilitate any discussion or motions as you've been doing so far to amend the CIP document before finally facilitating a vote to adopt the amended CIP ordinance. Our CIP overview begins with our original 10-year CIP document adopted in July of 2021. This ordinance has been amended annually, most recently in June of last year, along with the operating budget. This year, we had 24 capital project requests submitted for your consideration. However, it's important to designate that of those selected by Interim Administrator Willis, only nine met the $100,000 threshold to be included on the 10-year CIP document. That's why there'll be a smaller list for new projects than you saw last time. 21 projects are currently in progress, have funding revisions for the upcoming fiscal year, yielding a total of 30 capital projects included for funding in your consideration for FY27 CIP ordinance, with a total CIP project request of $45.3 million.

A bit of background.

This will be familiar information, but again, it's good to set our foundation. The Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, is a 10-year plan that sets out Council priorities in the form of capital projects. However, it's important to understand that the CIP is only a planning tool, so Council is not obligated to commit any funding sources, funding funds or funding sources and amounts as identified in the plan. A capital budget is adopted annually as part of the annual operating budget via a specific ordinance. Projects or heavy equipment with $100,000 or greater in value are identified for the CIP. As you've been discussing, there are future operating budget implications when a project or piece of equipment is completed or purchased. For example, the construction of a new facility will carry recurring annual costs beyond that which is laid out in the CIP, such as cost for staffing, utilities, upkeep and maintenance. There are a variety of ways to fund capital investments. These can include among others, borrowing in the form of bonds, the collection of taxes and fees, increased millage rates, as well as the use of cash savings. Again, council is not committed to the funding amount and the funding source when adopting the CIP annually. The selection of funding sources that can thus have a larger cost implication for the county's operating budget. Here we can see our progress along the annual CIP process, starting with the initial review of capital needs, facilitating input from department directors, planning commissioners, and interim administrator Willis, and finally seeking council input on which capital projects to proceed with into the next fiscal year. The next step will be council adoption after any requested revisions are made. Now I'll begin to walk us through the new capital projects currently included in the 10-year CIP document for first reading. To follow along, please look at your exhibit provided in your agenda packet. A quick note though, the 10-year CIP document will reflect the total cost of a project irrespective of its funding source. The slides in this presentation will only reflect the cost incurred by the county to fund these projects, not any remainder having been provided by an external funding source. The Flat Creek Park improvements in particular only require the county to fund the project contingency as state monies were successfully secured for the majority of the project. As I said before, I welcome any questions, comments, or motions. As I proceed, I only ask that Mr. Chairman facilitate these so staff can effectively take these down. Okay, and as we can see on our first slide for new projects, a note immediately, as I was writing this down on Thursday, the total for the 12-position radio console will be adjusted for second reading. That is now at about $1.3 million. And please feel free to stop me, ask questions or. I think we also took out the mini buses. Correct. The last three projects, the generator replacement at public safety communications, the fire dispatch CAD integration, and the wheel loader for road maintenance, bringing our total at this point again, which will be reflected at a lower amount with those projects adjusted and removed at 4.6 million. Next we can see our revised existing capital projects that are approved to begin in FY 27 Some of these also have revisions attached to them So they were in the document ten-year document last year if they were scheduled to begin in this year And they've not been included for first reading. They've been revised to unfunded unfunded or no funding source identified This is one where we took out the building services, correct, correct.

I

Then the next slide has the $2 million. Exactly.

Josiah, just probably just terminology. $2 million isn't going to touch a spec building. That was basically site prep.

Exactly, just getting it shovel ready.

Doing your due diligence to have somebody actually take a look at the site. Correct.

Does the fire station need to be added? It'll have to be added, yes, sir.

Yes, sir. When I come back for second reading, all of those adjustments and the additions that you voted on will be reflected on this. Okay.

The $1.1 million for the ambulance replacement, is this additional because don't we have an annual appropriation? This is the annual. That's the annual appropriation? Okay, thank you.

You can see your countywide fire apparatus appropriation of $18.7 million. as well as the annual vehicle replacement for fleet maintenance, the brush truck replacement program, which I believe Chief spoke on a couple of meetings ago, and then the purchase of the fire engine for station three. The purchase for the fire engine for station three would be out of fire impact fees. You can see our annual IT replacement program, Lancaster County Regional Park, has been moved to FY28. The Walnut Creek Soccer Fields, that has a split between CPST3 and fund balance appropriations. Again, that's the cost to resurface both fields at that location.

Is that the total cost?

Yes. You can see road paving, and immediately we see the Arrowwood Drive project that's mentioned earlier, office expansion for the solicitor, and then a few other items for solid waste collections. Finally, we can see our refuse vehicle trade-in and then the annual replacement for the sheriff's patrol vehicles. To balance those funds, we've gotten those broken out between fund 11 or the capital replacement fund and fund 10, which is our general fund. And as of this moment in time, when this was created, the ongoing projects were, or scheduled projects were at 40.6 million. So here we can see the breakout between new and existing capital projects as well as their proposed funding sources. A reminder that the total given here differs from the one in the exhibit due to the external funding for the Flat Creek.

Okay.

The requested action for council this evening is to make any motions, as you've been doing, desired before voting to adopt the amended CIP ordinance to include new and existing CIP projects while also removing those projects which have been completed from the document. So anything that's been completed, we would just be removing it from the document for the sake of clarity.

And again, to reiterate. Just because it's on the CIP doesn't mean that we're funding it this year. Yes, sir. We're approving the document itself. We're not approving anything else. Yes, sir. Does anybody have any motions for, I mean, does anybody have any questions for Mr. Park? We have a motion to approve.

So moved. Well, we already got that.

Is there any discussion? With amendments?

No, I mean, the amendments, I'm imagining the amendments already made based off of the changes that we've already approved.

So I would need to check on that because I believe you were amending the operating budget, which is where the actual money is allocated, as opposed to the 10-year CIP document.

make an amendment?

I believe you'd make a motion to change the six million fire station would go from unfunded to funded and then the building for planning and the site prep at Heath Springs would go to unfunded.

I would like to make a motion to change the CIP to include the items that were adopted in our first reading of budget tonight. Does that make sense?

Yes.

I have a motion from Mr. Harper and a second from Mr. Lewis. Is there any discussion? What is this?

What are your addings, Steve? Was your motion adding?

It's removing, if I can, removing the mini buses, adjusting the 12 position radio console replacement. It is removing the 4 million for development services spec building, the 2 million for the economic development spec building. It is, I thought there was one more. Arrowwood was not approved.

That's right. Arrowwood was approved. But we're not taking it out.

I think that's.

Arrowwood was approved. Yeah, but he's with, probably was not going. Removing it was.

Was not approved. And then we would add the six million for the Indian Land Fire Station, I think is what it is.

Yes.

Okay.

Is there any additional discussion?

I mean, is there value to go ahead and put an Edgewater station on the CIP?

No, because that's going to take the fire department, the fire commission, and... a lot of discussion on where that's got to be located and how it's going to be staffed. So it's a lot larger question. I mean, when the new administrator comes on, I will request that that be part of his job to look into, see if that will work.

All right, any other discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, the motion passes 6-4-1.

For the amendment.

For the amendment. Now we'll go back and vote on the original motion as amended. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Opposed? Again, it passes six to one. Thank you, Jim.

One more slide, if I may. Just our next steps. This is already, you're well aware of this. Second reading is gonna be on June 8th. That will also have the public hearing for the operating budget. June 10th is a council special meeting on Wednesday, June 10th. Any items that we're discussing here, we can also discuss then. And then June 22nd is our scheduled date for third reading of the budget and CIP ordinances in adoption.

All right, thank you. And the public hearing, I would encourage, I know we have a lot of people that watch these meetings, and I was chairman for many years. There was a lot of years nobody, came and spoke for or against the budget. So this'll be the public's opportunity to look through our budget and we welcome all comments whether you're for us or against us. I mean, we wanna be as transparent as what we're doing here and we want everyone to understand What we're doing is, I will say again, this is a large increase, but we are spending our reserves on one-time expenditures.

All right, thank you. We're going to move on now to discussion and action items. Do we have any appointments or anything, Lauren?

Mr. Chair, members of council, we have not received any new applications, so these items are just for information only.

All right. We do not have an executive session tonight, so I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion. We stand adjourned.